These are my cousins Rachael and Angela yesterday, after Angela made a surprise visit to her sister Rachael for the Easter holiday. That said surprise visit took place in Sydney, Australia makes it all the more impressive...
Excellent work Angela! 'Twas a well-synchronized and executed operation... and one well worth celebrating! :-)
No, I'm not one of them. Fer pete's sake, it took me six years before I finally broke down and got an iPod! Probably be just as long before I spring for an iPad (which I still think has one of the silliest names for a gadget ever :-P)
(rimshot)
I can tell already that I'm going to get heaps of grief from Chad and Eric about that :-P
The NCAA is now pondering the idea of expanding the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament from 65 teams to a whopping 96 schools going to the annual tournament. Under the proposed plan the National Invitational Tournament would be discontinued, the top 32 teams would receive byes and whole new brackets would be created for the embiggened tournament.
This sounds more like a hella big mess than the big dance, if you ask me. The current system ain't perfect, but it's about as nicely balanced as there's likely to be. Enlarging the field to 96 teams would do nothing to enhance the spectacle of the NCAA tournament and indeed, it would more likely as not diminish the passion and enthusiasm of March Madness as a whole.
And in case anyone's wondering: I still hope to see Elon go to the tournament some year. But I don't want to see my alma mater get to it like this.
Miroslaw Swietek, a physical therapist in Jaroszow, Poland, has perfected the art of going out with a camera and flashlight in the early morning hours to capture stunning photographs of insects asleep and covered in drops of dew. That's a dragonfly resting on a leaf that you see above.
Nothing else needs to be said: Swietek's photos speaks for themselves. But if you want to see more of his handiwork, The Daily Mail in Great Britain has several other "sleeping insect" images that Swietek has made.
You know what I like most about April Fools Day? It's that my birthday is March 31st. So for me it's like a two-day long extravaganza of hilarity and thanks to this blog, I get to share that good-natured nuttiness with a wide audience!
Okay well anyhoo, obviously this year's April Fools Day on The Knight Shift was nothing like last year's infamous "Johnny Robertson arrested at the Vatican" stunt that saw this blog slammed with visits from such places as the U.S. State Department and Vatican City itself. This time, I wanted to do something a bit quieter, but no less funny. And as things turned out I wound up running three prank stories on this blog.
Let's count 'em off...
1. "Governor Bev Perdue considers a tax on all things NASCAR-related for the state of North Carolina": This one generated a surprising amount of traffic for the blog. More than I was expecting in contrast to the other two. Obviously not true, but also something that I could kinda see happening in a state that has gone crazy on taxation.
2. "George Lucas is remaking Porky's": Until this past weekend I had never seen Porky's but having grown up during the Eighties, of course I'd heard about it. It came on one of the Starz channels on Saturday night and when I saw that it was set during the 1950s, something just "clicked". The big clue that this was a fake-arooni was the part about Porky's being "based on the bestselling novel by Richard Hooker". There was never an original Porky's novel and Richard Hooker may or may not have written it if there was one... but Richard Hooker did write the novel MASH, which became the basis of the movie of the same name. This April Fools prank apparently did shock and surprise a fair amount of people :-)
3. "Rock Band: 'Weird Al' Yankovic": AHHHHH the piece de resistance! I literally had the idea for this one during last year's April Fools Day, and kept it quietly to myself and a few trusted confederates since then. The "Cowcatcher Calamity Festival" bit, I've no idea where that one came from but it sounded plenty Weird Al-ish. Lots of folks again thought this was the real deal (and just as many want this to be a real game, hint-hint Harmonix ;-) Incidentally, my friend and filmmaking collaborator "Weird" Ed Woody took it upon himself to make this awesome faux-Xbox 360 game cover for Rock Band: "Weird Al" Yankovic, loaded with easter eggs for sharp-eyed Al fans!
And for the sake of good-humored confusion, I did utilize some links to real-life news outlets. Obviously GeekTyrant didn't really break a story about George Lucas rebooting Porky's, but they're such a terrific site that I wanted to give 'em a shout-out via this lil' gag. They've become one of my favorite sites and after you visit a few times GeekTyrant no doubt will become one for you too.
And that's it for April Fools 2010. But be warned: April Fools 2011 is already in the planning stages, muhahahahahaha....
Well, we've known for quite awhile that after he was done with Star Wars movies that Lucas wanted to proceed on Red Tails, his long, long, LONG-awaited film about black aviators during World War II. But what would Lucas possibly want to do after Red Tails is in the can?
The original Porky's, based on the bestselling novel by Richard Hooker, was directed by Bob Clark (who later went on to make A Christmas Story). It was about a group of high school guys in Florida during the 1950s who seek revenge on the owner of a brothel after he does them wrong.
Okay, I can kinda see Porky's being remade, since nowadays everything from Police Academy to A Nightmare on Elm Street is getting remade or rebooted. But why in the world is GEORGE LUCAS doing this? GeekTyrant's source at LucasFilm reports that "Lucas wants to go back to his American Grafitti roots and show the dark side of the Fifties. And he wants to take another stab at making a comedy. Porky's became one of the most successful film franchises of the Eighties and Lucas saw that the time was ripe to not only bring it into the modern era but also apply new cinematic technology."
Ummmm... all right, I guess. But if Uncle George has any notion about making Porky's in IMAX or (heaven forbid) 3-D, I'm going to avoid this thing like a mange-ridden Ewok.
Ahhhhh... who am I kidding? You and me and everyone else will see anything that George Lucas puts on the big screen :-P
Here's the press release that IGN Games posted a short while ago...
ROCK BAND: "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC WILL BRING PRINCE OF PARODY TO POPULAR PARTY GAMEI will gladly pay good money, sell my spleen, betray my Scoutmaster, do ANYTHING to get my hands on this game when it comes out. Heck, I might have to camp out a week in advance for it, just to show my devotion and lust for this! October 27th can NOT get here fast enough!!!Harmonix and MTV Games is proud to announce ROCK BAND: "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC is in production for a release date of October 27th, 2010.
The latest in the popular Rock Band series of music and rhythm video games, ROCK BAND: "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC is a homage to the unique character and career of "Weird Al" Yankovic: the best-selling comedy musical artist in history.
Much like last year's critically acclaimed and commercially successful ROCK BAND: THE BEATLES, ROCK BAND: "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC will take the player on an interactive journey across Yankovic's phenomenal career which has spanned four decades and counting. The game begins with a seventeen-year old Alfred Yankovic recording original songs on a cassette player in his bedroom at the home of his parents in Lynwood, California to submit to Dr. Demento's radio show. Other stages of the game will take place in fully-rendered reproductions of the men's restroom across the hallway from the radio station at California Polytechnic State University, a Japanese variety show, and Al's now-infamous 1987 performance at the Cowcatcher Calamity Festival of Lizzard Lick, Nebraska.
ROCK BAND: "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC will also include sections inspired by Weird Al's famous music videos, beginning with "Eat It" from his 1984 album "Weird Al" Yankovic: In 3-D. Reaching 1988 will give players the opportunity to perform in Weird Al's custom-tailored "Fat" costume within a reproduced virtual set of Michael Jackson's "Bad" video. There will also be playable songs with videos that have never been produced before. "'Albuquerque' will challenge the players' sanity like no song in ROCK BAND history," Weird Al confidently predicted, speaking of the nine-minute long song from his 1999 album Running With Scissors.
In addition to on-screen versions of Yankovic himself, ROCK BAND: "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC will feature the likenesses and actual voices of Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, Jay Levey, Jim West, Rubén Valtierra, Dr. Demento, Jay Levey, Victoria Jackson, Harvey the Wonder Hamster and several other legendary personalities from the Weird Al mythos.
As players work their way throughout Weird Al's career, they will be able to customize Al and his band with a variety of costume choices such as Hawaiian shirts and hundreds of pairs of Vans shoes. Among the game's many surprises, unlocking the "Jedi Knight" costume will enable players to perform the Yoda Chant at the end of the final concert.
In unprecedented collaboration with an original artist, Harmonix is working alongside Weird Al to create a special accordion peripheral for ROCK BAND: "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC. Players will have to coordinate finger movements along with using the accordion controller's pneumatic system in order to produce the proper music. The game can also be played without the accordion controller.
ROCK BAND: "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC will be available as a single game, as a game with accordion controller, and as a special "Al and the Band" bundle with game, accordion controller and the standard ROCK BAND instruments. Pricing is not available at this time but is expected to be comparable to other ROCK BAND products.
Just saw on the website for the Raleigh News & Observer that Governor Bev Perdue is talking with members of the General Assembly about levying a tax on all NASCAR-related sales within the state of North Carolina.
I say again: What. The. #&@$ ?!?!?
According to the article, if enacted into law the tickets for NASCAR stock car races will have a 10% tax imposed upon them. And it's not just that, friends and neighbors: the NASCAR merchandise is going to be hit extra-hard too! Want a scale-model replica of "King" Richard Petty's famous Number 43 car, or a calendar highlighting Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s career? Well in addition to the regular sales tax it's gonna have 5% extra added to the final price as well.
I can guess why Governor Perdue might be trying to do this. North Carolina is already the most-taxed state in the southeastern United States! Heck we're taxed to DEATH here! We're taxed so much that there's nothing... and I mean NOTHING... legitimate left to tax. So Perdue is going to go for the jugular.
I put her chances of getting elected for another term to be about as much as those of most of the Congress-critters who voted for Obamacare. If this is true, this is about the DUMBEST move in political history.
Anyone else wanna burn up the switchboard at the State Capitol?!?
Escalante, originally from La Paz, Bolivia, was a teacher of math and physics in his own country for many years before coming to the United States. When he got here he could speak no English, began taking night classes to earn degrees in biology and calculus, and eventually received credentials to begin teaching in California.
And that's where Jaime Escalante's life really began to get interesting. After accepting a position at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, Escalante - appalled at how the school taught very little in the way of higher mathematics - took it upon himself to challenge the students at Garfield to take an advanced placement calculus course. Eventually the students proceeded to blow away darn nearly everybody's expectations of them and with each successive year Garfield High began consistently outpacing most other schools in the state of California. In 1988 Jaime Escalante's story was made into the hit movie Stand and Deliver, with Edward James Olmos playing Escalante.
This dude was everything that the art of teaching is supposed to be about. As some have noted, Escalante took gang members and turned them into aerospace engineers.
Farewell Mr. Escalante. And thank you for sharing your ganas with us.
Do we really need this? For its tenth anniversary in 2006 I posted an extensive write-up about Independence Day. As much as I still love the movie, too much time has gone by since the original. It remains a product of its era and to make sequels to it would make a mockery of that. Well, I think so anyway.
I do think that Independence Day could be rebooted (since that's the route every other movie franchise seems to be going these days). I mean, think about it: who in America wouldn't want to see the White House and Congress blown up once more?
I saw Independence Day seven time in the theaters that summer. Having alien invaders make a smoldering crater out of Washington D.C. all over again would have me coming back at least TWICE as many times just to see that!
(It was enough to make me not want to stick around long enough to watch V tonight, if that says anything.)
But as for "The Package" itself...
EXCELLENT episode! Maybe even as good as last week's that gave us Richard's backstory. And so far as the Sun/Jin-centric installments are - which have become some of my favorite - "The Package" may have been one of the best. Good thing too, since this is probably the last Lost episode ever that will focus on our Korean lovebirds.
I'm starting to wonder if the "flashsideways"-es have something to do with what Hurley told Richard last week: that if the Man in Black isn't stopped then "we all go to hell". Last month I posted my theory that the Man in Black could be trying to escape not just into the world but in another world (like Mephisto in the Earth X Marvel Comics trilogy). Perhaps the flashsidewaysies are showing us the universe where the Man in Black is running rampant. How this is going to figure into a storyline with only seven episodes left to wrap up its mythology, I haven't a clue... but the Lost showrunners had better get hopping. After the past three or four episodes though, I'm still confident that they'll deliver.
There were two people that I thought over the past couple of weeks would be behind the door on the submarine. And who we saw being taken off of it was one of them. I wonder if we'll see the other one. Which also reminds me that it was nice to see Room 23 again... and that does make me think that we shall see that other character again soon.
A very, very solid episode. I'll give it a 10 out of 10.
I am a life-long viewer of WFMY. Yours is the station that I have most associated with well-produced television. Growing up our own television was always tuned to one of two channels: the local PBS affiliate for Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and Channel 2. Until the time I was 8 years old I didn't even know that there were other stations that did news, weather and sports. I will always fondly remember Lee Kindard's hosting of The Good Morning Show, Sandra Hughes is one of the all-time most classiest ladies in the history of anything (Lord willing I will finally get a chance to meet her someday) and whenever the weather has taken a turn for the worst or (even better) threatened snow that would cancel the schools, WFMY was there. I still remember people like Arlo Lassen (whatever happened to him anyway?) and whenever I see one of your many talented photojournalists out and about the urge comes over me even to this day to do that "number one" salute with the finger that y'all used to run at the end of each program.
I hope all of this makes it clear just how devoted I am to your station.
So perhaps you'll understand the sentiment when I say that tonight, somewhere in this great wide universe that God created, Charlie Harville is doing a huge facepalm in disbelief.
Why? Because you guys have desecrated the closest thing that the great state of North Carolina has to a High Holy Days.
I'm talking about what happened yesterday afternoon and evening with the severe weather that rolled through the Triad and surrounding area. Yes, there was a lot of damage and destruction. It couldn't be helped. And maybe y'all did what you thought was best to stem the devastation.
But that doesn't change the fact that you broke in before the second half of the Duke and Baylor game of the NCAA Basketball Tournament and showed nothing but weather for the next several hours!
And in North Carolina, that is just about an unforgivable offense. If this had been the finals of the BASS Masters, or the World Series, or even the Super Bowl, this would have been different. But instead you chose to commit a basketball broadcasting blasphemy. HERE of all places! In a state whose motto should be "Play Basketball or Die!"
All the other stations in this area were doing severe weather alerts. The broadcasting footprints of any two of them covers the same area as your market. They had the latest weather updates... but only WFMY had college basketball and even better, Duke college basketball (they are going to the Final Four incidentally, having beaten Baylor 78 to 71... and I had to go to ESPN to find that out).
I'm not going to ask if this would have happened had it been UNC Chapel Hill playing to get into the Final Four. That would just open up another can of worms. Instead I shall leave that particular question as an exercise for the reader.
Look: I think that Eric Chilton, Leigh Brock, Ed Matthews and Grant Gilmore are doing a super excellent job so far as local weather goes. WFMY has always had, and to this day still has, one of the finest meteorological departments of any television station not just in this country, but the world. I have nothing but the utmost respect for your meteorological staff's skill, enthusiasm and terrific on-scream demeanor. And I will still gladly tune in to WFMY for much of my weather forecasting needs.
But this weekend, y'all messed up bigtime.
I'm not asking for y'all to apologize. Just please, bear it in mind next time something like this happens. Even amid something like this, there are lots of people who don't want to be confronted with all of the local stations broadcasting about it, but would rather have an avenue like college basketball in which to escape from their momentary fear. And I am very much sincere about this. There comes a point in any crisis situation when there is too much information and a person needs to be able to take a step back from it. That is what WFMY News 2 could have provided yesterday evening, that literally no other station in this market could have provided at that time.
Just think about what I've said, and consider these thoughts the next time an event like this happens.
Still a faithful viewer,
Chris Knight
Reidville
EDIT 3:30 a.m. EST: WFMY News 2 has addressed its broadcasting decisions yesterday afternoon on its digtriad.com website, citing "hundreds of phone calls and emails from viewers asking why we stayed on the air for so long during the basketball game and prime time programming".
Here's the statement...
The reason is that it is our obligation to keep our viewers, safe during a dangerous situation. When there is a tornado warning, it means there is rotation in a thunderstorm which could reach the ground as a tornado. In this case, the warnings lead to three possible tornadoes and significant damage through our viewing area.I don't mind saying this: WFMY's statement about this doesn't hold any water.The Federal Communications Commission requires broadcast stations to deliver immediate emergency information during the duration of a warning. Once a warning is lifted, we will return you to regular program or full screen games as the case might be.
Replays of the primetime programs will be available online on Monday. They are usually updated within 24 hours of the initial broadcast of the show. You can find those shows including The Amazing Race and Undercover Boss on the CBS Video Player.
Maybe once upon a time that dog could hunt. But fercryin' out loud: WFMY has three digital channels now, not just one analog signal! If they sincerely believe they've a legal obligation to broadcast breaking weather information, fine... but WHY COULDN'T THEY SIMPLY SHUNT THE NCAA BASKETBALL BROADCAST TO DIGITAL CHANNEL 2-3?!? I mean, they have 2-3 set up, but they aren't using it for anything. Digital channel 2-2 is dedicated to 24 hour continuous weather, and I have to praise WFMY for that 'cuz it really is a convenience to more people than the station realizes.
But to not be prepared for a contingency like this? By not having a choice of options available to its viewers when WFMY not only can do so but already should have done so?
I don't know what's worse now: that WFMY didn't broadcast the Duke/Baylor game, or that it seems to have lacked the creativity that digital broadcasting technology not only allows but in fact demands.
(Here's the memorial write-up that I did a few years ago on the occasion of what would have been Granny's 100th birthday.)
That was the beginning of a very long and dark period of my life (which might have been pretty dark to begin with). And for quite some time after that I was horribly depressed... and especially about thoughts of death and dying. Granny's passing would be the first of many people that I loved and cared about that passed away within a short period of time.
There isn't a day that's gone by since that afternoon ten years ago, that I haven't thought of Granny. But now at last I can let go, and continue living. Because I know now that the life that we see isn't all that there is. I realize more than ever before that God doesn't create something without purpose or meaning. Especially the good things... and Granny was one of the most good people that I have ever known.
Ten years later... and I wouldn't be saying this if I didn't know from hard-earned experience... but I am at last comforted by the knowledge that God is good and graceful, and that His is the peace that surpasses all understanding. The thought of dying doesn't bother me anymore, because I have accepted that death is not entirely a bad thing. Yes, it is a dire consequence of living in this fallen world. But it is also very much a part of life. Death is an inevitable component of growth, and I'm not talking physically either. I like to think that it's how God gives us an escape from this world after we have at long last exhausted everything else that we could possibly do to learn and grow and experience here.
So on this day, on the tenth anniversary of one of the worst days of my life, I cannot be filled with grief and sadness. Instead I thank God that He gave us Granny. Just as I thank Him that I will see her again in the fullness of time... along with everyone else that I have cared for.
About a year and a half ago this song was used in the commercial for Gears of War 2. I'd never heard it until then, and this past fall I finally looked it up. And when I first listened, really listened to it, I found myself swept up in a lot of emotion about my own grandmother and the blessed hope that she isn't so far away after all. That "forever's not so long".
This is one of the most profoundly moving and beautiful songs that I've heard in recent memory. It really sums up what I've gone through in thinking of Granny and all of the others that have been taken from us. It's given me some comfort, and maybe by sharing it here it can be a comfort to others who are going through similar.
So here is "How It Ends" by DeVotchKa...
The biggest clue that something was terribly amiss was that Wolfe was attempting to restore to life a roadkilled possum, which reportedly had been "dead for quite awhile", with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
I'd love to know what the heck this guy had been drinking...
Kinda sad really: when people like cartoonists show far more enlightenment and wisdom than those we elect to be entrusted with our government.
Because of me, Earth is teetering that much closer to doom! What ever shall I do for penance?
Just busy on this end with work for clients, work on my new film project (especially location scouting), some conflict in realms apart from the temporal... y'know, the usual.
All that, and still feeling quite honked-off at the developments of this past week. Grrrrrr.
(Oh yeah, that's right: not even Obama and his cronies want Obamacare. They're exempt from it.)
But within the legislation - which the House just re-approved a short while ago - are provisions for conscientious objection to Obamacare because of religion. The legal language seems tailor-made for the Amish (who use the communal resources of their churches to provide for medical care) and for Muslims, for whom insurance is religious taboo.
Since I'm neither Muslim, or a member of any Christian denomination (I still prefer to call myself a follower of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ), I guess that means that I'm screwed, right? Well, who is anyone in this steaming pile of bullshit (that's the very first time that I've used THAT word in any piece of writing, dear readers!) that is our government to tell me or anybody that my or your religion is invalid or "wrong"?
I now declare myself the Reverend Christopher Knight of the Second Church of What's Happening Now. And Obamacare is against the tenets of my creed, so I must be exempt. And I will be exempt, dammit!
And if you too want to stand up to that cocky bastitch in the White House and that deranged *itch of a House Speaker, feel free to do likewise.
They chose this as the title because they want to make it stark clear that there will be no spinoff series, no movie, no anything. There's supposed to be an official Lost encyclopedia book coming out at some point but so far as the story of Lost goes, this will indeed be THE end.
I like it :-)
Considering how in the past few days a number of representatives who voted "aye" for this monstrosity have had bricks thrown through the windows of their offices and one such congressman had a coffin dumped on the lawn of his house, I have to ponder aloud if such "knock-knock, zoom-zoom affirmation" might result in more than a few of them finally "getting the message" that the American people DO NOT WANT this crap!
I might have to get one of these. 'Twould be a lot of fun just to play a game like Fallout 3 on it :-)
Quit going around harassing decent folks at their homes and their churches. You'll no doubt stay healthy longer for it.
Incidentally, why are you giving much of your congregation's money to a fornicating sexual deviant? Doesn't sound very much like being a good steward of the Lord's provision, but maybe that's just me.
Neither does it seem very consistent with your alleged piousness when one among you isn't even a married man but is driving around with women's underwear on display in the back seat of his car.
From the article at USA Today...
The researchers used paintings of this event "because it is the most famous supper in history," which artists have been painting for centuries, so the paintings provide information about plate and entree sizes over time, says Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell (University) Food and Brand Lab in Ithaca, N.Y. One possible reason for the increase: Food may have become more available and less expensive, he says.Thanks to Chad Austin for the great find (and Twitter-ing about it. Yes, he really did!)He did the research with his brother, Craig, a professor of religious studies at Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk, and a Presbyterian minister.
The three Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), which include descriptions of The Last Supper, mention only bread and wine, but many of the paintings have other foods, such as fish, lamb, pork and even eel, says Craig Wansink.
The use of fish in the meals is symbolic because it's an image that is used to represent Christianity, he says. Among the reasons for the symbolism: A number of the disciples were fishermen, and Jesus told them "to be fishers of men," he says. Plus, he says, Jesus performed several miracles with fishes and loaves.
(Oh who am I kidding? North Carolina's government is so bass-ackwards on everything, the concept would never even get the chance to fly here...)
Anyway, an experiment being conducted by an Oxford neuroscience professor at Monkseaton High School in North Tyneside in Great Britain has had students starting classes an hour later than usual, at 10 a.m. The remarkable findings of the experiment thus far are that the later class time has caused an 8% drop in general absence and a 27% drop in chronic absenteeism. Furthermore, memory testing done on the students indicate that the best time for learning more difficult lessons is in the afternoon. Researchers believe that teenagers wanting to sleep in is not a matter of laziness, but merely a component of biology adjusting during the adolescent years.
(Or maybe it's just that they're staying up at later hours playing World of Warcraft? :-P)
We finally, finally got Richard Alpert's backstory in "Ab Aeterno", this week's episode of Lost. And it did not disappoint! I would even say that this was the best character-centric origin story since Ben's episode "The Man Behind the Curtain" in Season 3. Maybe even since "Numbers" all the way back in the first season.
Something I couldn't help but catch: Tenerife was the location of one of the worst airline disasters in history. Was that something intentional on the part of the producers, to have Richard start out his life there? Anyways, what we have is a good man who was caught up in a tragedy composed of complete assholes: first that despicable doctor, then the even more despicable priest, followed by the officers of the Black Rock and then Jacob's adversary. Richard in some ways is the most tragic character we have seen on Lost: a person who longs for absolution from God more than anything else. I like to think that in the final scenes, he knew that he had that at last.
We also now know how the Black Rock came so far inland, and how the statue of Tawaret got demolished... all in one fell swoop! And most of all, we're starting to finally understand what the Island is: nothing less than a prison for the Man in Black and a material battleground between the cosmic battle between good and evil.
I've watched this episode three times so far, and it's still blowing my mind. I have unquestioning faith now in this show: that we are going to get solid answers to all of the big mysteries before the end two months from now.
"Ab Aeterno" gets 10 out of 10 from this viewer!
"Chutzpah" is a Yiddish word meaning "shameless audacity". It's an olden Hebrew term that in his book The Joys of Yiddish author Leo Rosten describes as "gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible 'guts,' presumption plus arrogance such as no other word and no other language can do justice to."
So what fits in the category of "chutzpah"?
One example of chutzpah is the child who kills both of his parents, and then throws himself down on the mercy of the court on the grounds that he is an orphan.
Another example of chutzpah is the "evangelist" who routinely rails against a television station for "promoting dancing, R-rated movies" as being somehow sinful behavior, yet is apparently not bothered by the fact that he gives more than a million dollars of his congregation's money to buy airtime at another television station whose general manager not only promotes the same stuff and worse... but is also a bisexual who regularly gets his jollies by enticing viewers to call in and talk about their sex lives (while never mentioning his own). That would be plenty of chutzpah too.
But right now at this moment, what comes most to mind when I think of chutzpah is the revelation that Congress has voted to impose Obamacare on everyone but NOT those who wrote the #@$%-ing law!
From the article at The New Ledger...
For as long as the political fight took over the past year, the abbreviated review process on the health care legislation currently pending on President Obama’s desk is unquestionably going to result in some surprises — as happens with any piece of mashed-up legislation — both for the congressmen who voted for it and for the American people.There is much, much more in Ben Domenech's eyeball-popping writeup at the above link, dear readers.One such surprise is found on page 158 of the legislation, which appears to create a carveout for senior staff members in the leadership offices and on congressional committees, essentially exempting those senior Democrat staffers who wrote the bill from being forced to purchase health care plans in the same way as other Americans.
I guess Orwell had it right: some people are more equal than others.
As of this week and under new management (previous owner Vetutius Placidus having long since retired or worse), the thermopolium of Pompeii has reopened for the first time in 1,921 years, and is reportedly already enjoying a thriving business! The menu for the first day included sugary treats that Roman citizenry were known to enjoy, but from here on out the thermopolium will be serving up a more modern repast.
(And probably a good thing too, 'cuz the "sell by" dates on the potato chips have no doubt long, long since expired.)
Click on the link above for more!
And this installment is apparently so important that it will broadcast six minutes longer than most regular episodes.
Bear that in mind and set your DVRs accordingly!
In his article Tanner makes the following prediction, and I thought it was well worth making note of...
Republicans won't really try to repeal it. Republicans will run this fall on a promise to repeal this deeply unpopular bill, and will likely reap the political advantages of that promise. But in reality there is little chance of their following through. Even if Republicans were to take both houses of Congress, they would still face a presidential veto and a Democratic filibuster.Sadly, I suspect that Tanner will be proven correct about this. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if many Republicans are secretly happy that last night's health care "reform" passed and will soon be signed into law by President Obama.But more important, once an entitlement is in place, it becomes virtually impossible to take away. The fact that Republicans have been criticizing Obamacare for cutting Medicare shows that they are not really willing to take the heat for cutting people's benefits once they have them — no matter how unaffordable those benefits are. Paul Ryan put forth a serious plan for entitlement reform — and attracted just six co-sponsors at last count. Enough said.
Because the very massive public outcry against this legislation is a huge carrot that a lot - if not most - of the Republicans in or running for high office will be using to lure Americans into "vote for us!" Oh, I'm fairly sure (not positive, but have a gut feeling) that the Republicans will take control of the House and Senate come November. But if there is any effort to repeal Obamacare it will only be a token gesture. There will be some bills passed in Congress, and Obama will veto them all (I doubt there'll be a supermajority in Congress to override that). And then we won't hear anything about it again because the Republicans in general will boo-hoo about "it's too hard for us to fight the veto". And of course they will use that to justify that we the people merely need to elect more Republicans.
And nothing will change.
Fercryingoutloud, the GOP had the White House and both houses of Congress for six years. Did government decrease in size at all during that period?! Hell no it didn't! On the Republicans' watch it increased more than any other time in living memory, until last night. If anyone seriously believes that things will be any different the next time the Republicans "have the power", I've some oceanfront property in Nebraska to sell.
The Republicans have been promising to revoke the "right" to abortion for three and a half decades. They haven't done it yet. I'm not entertaining any optimism that they will be more rigorous in ridding us of this latest embiggening of big government.
So let me wrap this up by writing what I perhaps should have said last night, because there are times when a writer has done his absolute best to articulate his sentiments to the fullest but can sincerely go no further without violating the mores of polite society...
We are sooooo fucked.
God help us.
Volcano Erupts Under EyjafjallajökullI found this to be postworthy for three reasons. One, it seems that lately there's been a lot of geological activity all over the planet. Two, this kind of thing fascinates me.21.3.2010
Words by Haukur S. MagnússonA volcanic eruption has just begun under the Eyjafjallajökull glacier. This has been verified by local authorities in neighbouring Hvolsvöllur. Vísir reports that farms in the Fljótshlíð area and by Markarhlíð are already being evacuated. Locals in the area have confirmed that they are viewing flames and a steady stream of lava from the glacier.
Eyjafjallajökull is an active central volcano. There is reportedly no recorded history of catastrophic eruptions in the area. The volcano last erupted 189 years ago and apparently caused a lot of ash fall in the area. Although speculation on the subject is pretty much useless (especially since your loving team of Grapevine reporters isn't really comprised of geologists or anything, although we scored pretty well in the subject in high school), folks are saying that besides the ash fall the greatest danger lies in glacier bursts or runs stemming from all that hot hot heat melting the glacier. There might be a bunch of water flooding the area pretty soon.
ANYWAY, this is all moot speculation. What we know at the moment is that a volcanic eruption is indeed occurring under the Eyjafjallajökull glacier, and that lava is really, really hot.
More on this as it develops. Hey, we might even be able to get you some pictures. Stay tuned.
But third and foremost, I thought it would be pretty neat to use the word "Eyjafjallajökull" on a blog entry :-)
I demand that Nancy Pelosi give me a lifetime supply of short-sleeve shirts. After all, the Constitution guarantees a "right to bare arms".
Obamacare is going to be a violation of the separation of church and state, because it violates my religious freedom on grounds that I believe that having insurance is a form of gambling.
Okay, seriously...
This will be the absolutely worst legislation passed in Congress in American history, if President Obama gets to sign it.
And incidentally, there is enormously strong historical evidence that socialized medicine would not be the first time that the politicians in Washington have screwed us over with "deem and pass".
(Hint: Google about "Philander Knox").
(With grateful acknowledgment to Charlotte Butler Wright, who came up with the first part and has it on her Facebook page. And I've witnessed the second part more times than I care to count.)
The vote occurred along split partisan lines. The ten Republicans on the board voted for the curriculum changes and the five Democrats opposed it. The results have been both hailed and condemned as giving the teaching materials a "conservative" and "right-leaning" slant, as opposed to what some construe is a "liberal" one.
The reason this is going to be a big deal for the rest of the country is because Texas is one of the biggest consumers in the highly lucrative business of school textbooks. So if textbook publishers have to produce for the Texas market, those same learning materials will likely be adopted in other states.
Matthew wrote on his blog about how this smacks too much of political propaganda. And, he would be correct.
But what troubles me especially about this - and it's taken me a few days to really feel ready to articulate my thoughts on it - is that the Texas State Board of Education is perpetuating a terrible ignorance... and it has nothing to do with the ideological flavor of the textbooks that they will be using. I would be just as bothered by the board's actions if it had purposefully chosen an admittedly left-leaning curriculum.
The ten members of the board who voted for these changes demonstrated no wisdom or foresight by wielding their power in order to literally ensconce Newt Gingrich and the Moral Majority in the history books, or to remove entirely any mention of Thomas Jefferson as a leading intellectual guiding light of early America (huh?!). And it's even troubling that the board deliberately chose to remove Ross Perot's 1992 run for President from historical discussion (the 1994 "Contract with America" however did make it in).
Is it Republican/"conservative" propaganda? Hell yes it is. And it would be just as wrong if it were Democrat/"liberal" propaganda. The examination and deliberation of history should never be defined by and along partisan lines. History is a broad tapestry, and to selectively pull this thread or that one out of it is to cheapen and make worthless the work entire.
But that still isn't what is particularly frustrating me about what the Texas State Board of Education has chosen to do. No, what irks me the most is that in spite of its sworn duty and very title, the board has chosen not to educate young minds, but to rather instill unquestioning obedience to the status quo and a paradigm fast approaching obsolescence.
Education is supposed to be a thing that transforms a person into an enlightened individual. The intended result of education should be a person capable of wise choice, rational mind, and liberty to pursue the exercise of personal conscience. In short: education is that which most empowers one to be free... including the freedom to question The Way Things Are.
The Texas State Board of Education, however, has chosen to compel the millions of children in its charge to accept The Way Things Are without question. And I would say that regardless of which ideology the curricula was being slanted toward. The Texas State Board of Education however has taken an education of ignorance to an entire new level of brazenness. The board - along with all other school boards in the United States - should be doing its damndest to encourage its students to not think in terms of "conservative and liberal". That is a dichotomy as false as anything could possibly be. It is also one that I am increasingly seeing is being challenged and questioned by a growing number of people.
But it's not freedom of mind that the Republicans of Texas' state school board have shown they are interested in by this course of action. Rather, they have demonstrated that they want, in their own way, to continue propping up the two-party puppet show that is destroying America.
Well, America isn't going to be saved for our children by the party faithful of either the Democrats or the Republicans. If America is going to have any future at all, it's going to come by the hard work, tireless efforts and even sacrifice of those who refused to abide by The Way Things Are.
The Texas State Board of Education had an opportunity to lead the way in this country by an infusion of fresh blood. Instead it chose to continue a condition of terminal anemia.
Perhaps there is a country in history that has thrived on a determined education in ignorance and apathy. But if there is one, it's not coming to the mind of this writer. And I doubt that Texas, as a state, is going to prove to be any different.
Dini suggests that in the future, his technique could be used to quickly establish a base on the Moon by supplying it with native lunar dust and building required structures from there, instead of hauling material from Earth.
Hit here for more about the D-Shape printer, which will probably be pretty cheap when it comes to market... but the cost of the ink cartridges will be insane! :-P
That big green chunk of geography represents overwhelmingly Baptist populations. The "thin red line" stretching roughly from northern Virginia across to the Midwest is primarily Methodist. Mormons are chiefly located across Utah and the western states. Lutherans have their stronghold around the Great Lakes. Catholics are heavily settled in New England. And if you examine the map further you can find places populated by the Amish, Presbyterians, Seventh-Day Adventists, Orthodox and Anglicans.
Pretty neat!
Media conglomermonster Viacom - which has tied up the video hosting service in litigation for the past three years over "copyright infringement" - is now said to have been secretly uploading its own videos to the Google-owned website!
From the statement on the official YouTube blog, pertaining to court documents made public earlier today...
Because content owners large and small use YouTube in so many different ways, determining a particular copyright holder’s preference or a particular uploader’s authority over a given video on YouTube is difficult at best. And in this case, it was made even harder by Viacom’s own practices.Good. Lord.For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately "roughed up" the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses. It even sent employees to Kinko's to upload clips from computers that couldn't be traced to Viacom. And in an effort to promote its own shows, as a matter of company policy Viacom routinely left up clips from shows that had been uploaded to YouTube by ordinary users. Executives as high up as the president of Comedy Central and the head of MTV Networks felt "very strongly" that clips from shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report should remain on YouTube.
Viacom's efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site. As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself.
Given Viacom’s own actions, there is no way YouTube could ever have known which Viacom content was and was not authorized to be on the site. But Viacom thinks YouTube should somehow have figured it out. The legal rule that Viacom seeks would require YouTube -- and every Web platform -- to investigate and police all content users upload, and would subject those web sites to crushing liability if they get it wrong.
If true, Viacom's actions are about the most boneheaded legal maneuver pertaining to digital entertainment that I can think of since Universal tried to sue Nintendo for using Donkey Kong to infringe on King Kong when Universal didn't own King Kong to begin with. That case became a huge victory for Nintendo and helped propel it to being the corporate giant that it is today. Might this allegation - if found to be true - prove to be a similar boon for YouTube? Yeah, I think it's possible.
Click here for more about this story, and the learned minds that are Slashdot readers are already contributing their trademark colorful thoughts to the matter.
EDIT 6:48 p.m. EST: Do not think for one moment that I am NOT hysterically giggling about this turn of events, for reasons that should be more than obvious :-)
And today it's making a comeback, courtesy of Steven Westlake and his alter-ego, "proprietor William A. Mays". Westlake has propelled National Police Gazette into the 21st century via the Internet and it is a scream of a good read! Aim here for the National Police Gazette website. And the website Ragazine has posted an in-depth interview with Westlake that provides even more history about this groundbreaking publication and its return.
Okay, #3 is maybe all the more amazing for me 'cuz the pilot is flying upside-down. And I once saw a plane crash at an air show. It was in 1996 here in Rockingham County, and the dude in the cockpit was doing a low-altitude maneuver upside-down over the runway. It happened right in front of where we were sitting and it looked horrific. But he got out with just a few scratches and I heard that the plane was even flyable again not long afterward. But when we're looking at a multi-million dollar piece of military hardware doing the same thing... yah, gotta admire the cajones there!
The Tarheels now finally have the opportunity to achieve something they've never earned before...
A National Invitational Tournament championship banner hanging from the rafters of the Dean Dome! :-P
So maybe that's affecting me somewhat, but I thought that "Recon", tonight's installment, was a bit of a step down. That's bothersome because there are only about ten hours or so left of this show's run to tie up all the loose ends. But I'll maintain faith in showrunners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof: Lost has surprised the bejeebers out of us before. It's only fitting that it keeps doing it up 'til the grand finale.
Anyhoo, "Recon" wasn't the best of the Sawyer-centric episodes, but I found it fascinating all the same, and the flashsideways-es have finally begun to grow on me. We've seen Sawyer the con-man who was on Oceanic 815 when it crashed. "Recon" gave us Detective James Ford: the "Sawyer" that would have come about from the road not taken. I've long been intrigued by the notion of Schrodinger's cat. Well, that's the same kind of thing that I got out of "Recon" tonight: James "Sawyer" Ford is like a particle that you can't predict. He told Charlotte that he could have been a crook or a cop and he chose cop... but what made him be one in the "main" universe and be another in the alternate timeline?
What indeed? The thing that most comes to mind is choice: that most capricious of qualities.
And the more I think about it, "Recon" was an episode about choices and whether we have them. Does Sayid believe he has a choice? Does Claire, who seems to have chosen to put aside her hatred of Kate?
I couldn't help but notice that Kate didn't touch the fake Locke's hand when he extended it. Last week Richard told Jack and Hurley that his immortality was because Jacob had touched him long ago. Does the "Man in Black" possess a similar characteristic? Did Kate avoid something by not making physical contact with him?
Gonna have to watch this one again. In the meantime, I'll give "Recon" a 7.5 out of 10.
And in seven days apparently comes the episode that I thought we'd never see: Richard Alpert and his story. Dare we hope for a flashback to the Black Rock?!
Beginning with question #5, the form starts asking for explicit details about each person living at the location. The exact working is "Please provide information..."
The way I see it, you only have to answer the one question that is constitutional (for purposes of congressional apportionment). Everything else on the form is merely a request for optional information.
In other words, simply put "1" or "2" or "4" or whatever, and send the census form back without putting down any more information than what the government is supposed to collect.
Although if you wish to have some fun with it, I suppose one could put down "Klingon" as their race.
Ummmm... why?
Even if Google Fiber is 100 times faster than regular broadband, what good will it be? Within the winning city the Internet might work at blazing-hot speed, but the "normal" speed of the outside world will be a debilitating bottleneck. At least until Google Fiber gets rolled out sufficiently enough to take on a bulk of the data traffic.
It's like trying to win a contest for an SR-71 Blackbird without having a runway to launch it from. No doubt that it'll look real purty sitting in your backyard, but what's the use if you can't even fly the thing?
Graves had a long run on Mission: Impossible, and appeared in Stalag 17. The most recent thing that I remember him being in was Seventh Heaven, when he played that preacher guy's father.
But a lot of people from my generation are going to know him best as Captain Ouver, the airline captain in the classic 1980 slapstick comedy Airplane!
So before you go looking for it, I've done the work for you. Here is Graves as Captain Ouver, asking Joey such things as "You ever seen a grown man naked?"
Farewell Mr. Graves, and thanks for the many thrills and laughs.
Truly, we are living in the age of medical miracles!
(Thanks to Shane Thacker for spotting this.)
(Awright, that's enough of the puns...)
Anyway, the students at Weaver have put together a very good show and I'm glad for the opportunity to have been able to catch this. Sweeney Todd plays again on March 18th, 19th and 20th at Weaver Academy, located at 300 South Spring Street in Greensboro. Showtime is at 7 and tickets are $12. The only thing I regret to inform my readers about is that complimentary meat pie is not served during the performance... but don't let that stop y'all from enjoying it as well! :-)
